And on the seventh day God didn't actually rest, he let Katatonia create an album concealing all euphoria and calmness, Brave Murder Day; and he saw that it was good. And God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Katatonia and they slept: and he took one of their ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib, which God had taken from the band, made he October Tide and brought them unto the earth.

When Katatonia dismissed their more extreme form of desolation and bleakness and embraced their clean-vocal path, October Tide seemed like a spring of life (no matter how contradictive this may sound) to all the pre-Discouraged Ones era fans. And how couldn't all these melancholic souls be happy since Fredrik Norrman and Jonas Renkse were part of the band, definitely knowing what they were after. They proved it with Rain Without End and Grey Dawn.

Everything seemed happy (hah) in the Katatonia camp, until one day the Norrman brothers left for their own reasons. Fred although set back on track the October Tide doom/death metal machine with a new line-up and In Mourning's Tobias Netzell on vocals. Everything you asked for is here, actually you know what to expect, a combination of heavier riffing and more melodic harmonies adorning the soundscape with this bittersweet aura we all loved, distressing our tranquility along with the imposing rhythm section. Tobias Netzell stands with pride behind the microphone lending some awesome and powerful deep grunts that often reach a more shrieking vibe, an excellent choice to fill in the empty shell of vocal disheartenment.

The production is very good and this helps the compositions show their real face in full force with the band striking as one like a fist of raging pain. Yet, we've seen this play before, but anyway, they never promised something different, they know who they are, they know what they want to offer, we know what we want and we like it. So where's the problem? Actually nowhere and A Thin Shell is this this type of album that won't make you feel depressed or something, it's true, it holds loads of emotion, but through anger, seven straight to your face doom/death metal compositions that will keep you intense and distressing company for about 40 minutes without forgetting to flirt with melody.

I'd like to see them progress their sound in the future though, if they continue anyway, an album in this vein was more than fair enough as a come-back, to make the ones who already know remember and the new ones find out. As for now, A Thin Shell is a good album to stick around and remember once again tales from an album that let its mark in the scene almost 15 years ago.

Well, in my opion yeah, they are, try them in chronological order if you want, try first Rain Without End (it was re-released almost recently since it was a hell of hard to be found, if not at all), then Grey Dawn, then the new one.